'Middle'some Mayhem

A few days back, I sat down to watch 'Children of Men', but
something rather interesting happened. This is how I summarized it on a facebook status update.


"So, the movie starts...people run around, shoot blam blam blam, Michael Caine dies in about 5 minutes (??), more shooting running, another guy dies, run around, shoot, boom, everyone else dies, hero heroine get on to a boat, Clive Owen dies...all in under sixty minutes!! And then I realise, I have been watching Disc 2 of the movie. :| *facepalm* "




This however did not prevent me from watching Disc 1 of the movie. As a result, what
happened was, I was lead to a point in the movie, after which, I knew what was going
to happen. And then I thought, HEY....




Cliffhanger




 “If you kill me, I become Immortal!!” he shouted, his voice trying to rise over the wind as it blew in great gusts around them. His fingers were slipping.

"Convenient! How FUCKIN' Convinient! You really don’t expect me to fall for it, do you?" he barked, looking down upon the guy hanging with one hand. Beyond him lay the dark expanse of an open gorge.  You couldn’t see the bottom; not even if you squinted.

“Enough with the puns George; just pull me up and we can figure this out. What I am trying to tell you is, if you let me go, I die, and then I come back again!” he bellowed, making an unsuccessful attempt at hooking his left hand to a ledge. If he couldn’t get a grip, there was a good chance he was going to fall straight down.

Getting stuck with your once-a-friend-now-an-enemy on the side of the cliff wasn’t just bad. It was fucked up.

The man standing on top of the gorge arched his right eyebrow and paused for a bit.

“What are you talking about? Don’t give me that entire time travel thing again Greg. You already disappeared because of it for months and I had to fill in your shoes. I have been beaten, stabbed at, hell, even dragged around the marketplace by the people you owed money to! Give me one good reason why I should save you?”

  

“Because if you don’t, you shall get old right here and die! And I would remain this way till you were gone! Now pull me up before this gets out of hand!” he said, holding on with his last efforts.

“What do you mean?” George said, still reluctant at pulling him up. He had had enough of punishment for something he never did, and wanted to get over with it.

“The time machine got built! I have programmed it to take me back in time to the point when I meet you on top of the cliff, and that happens in another three minutes! When you get me back up, I can reach down in my pocket and turn it off! Otherwise it would happen yet again!” he screamed, his voice dying out slowly, his strength ebbing.

“Wait...what? Are you trying to tell me this already happened before?” George said, a look of surprise creeping up on to his face.

“Yes...and if you don’t pull me up, it’s going to happen again! So PLEASE PULL ME UP! There is hardly any time!”

George straightened up and grinned. He added “you are not going to get me this time. Enough of your bullshit, you hear? ENOUGH!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he stamped hard on his fingers. A fading echo later, there was no sign of another man there.

He peeped over the cliff face and looked down into nothingness. He was most probably dead. George could now lead his life in peace. He turned around and looked into the face of a man he had just killed.

“Cripes! You are dead!” George said eyes as big as marbles.

“What are you talking about George? I just came as promised; to meet you at the cliff face after the completion of the stipulated year. Now, I know you have faced a lot of trouble for the money I borrowed off the lenders...”

“NO!! YOU ARE DEAD! I JUST KILLED YOU!” George screamed, spittle flying into Greg’s face. He was almost bawling.

“What’s up with you? Look at your watch! It’s four o’ clock, the time I promised to meet you! How could you kill me if you never met me?” Greg, incredulous, questioned.

George slowly looked at his watch. It was indeed four o’ clock. He suddenly felt himself going mad. It felt real, like a sensation.

“It’s all done George, I have made the time machine! All our problems are solved! We can go back and start over a new life!” he said, brimming with anticipation, and took a step forward.

“No it wouldn’t!! Martha is dead because of you, you bastard!” George screamed and lunged at Greg. Greg suddenly swung through the air and found himself hanging from the side of the rock face. Somewhere in his head, it felt like déjà vu. He thanked his stars at having set his time machine.

“If you kill me, I become immortal!” Greg screamed at the growing night, which grew darker, swallowing everything around, swallowing them, growing rapidly, till it became a big empty expanse of an empty universe...